On July 19, 1957, five Air Force officers and one photographer stood together on a patch of ground about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. They'd marked the spot "Ground Zero. Population 5" on a hand-lettered sign hammered into the soft ground right next to them.
Directly overhead, two F-89 jets roared into view, and one of them shot off a nuclear missile carrying an atomic warhead.
At 18,500 feet above them, the missile detonated and blew up. These men intentionally stood directly underneath an exploding 2-kiloton nuclear bomb. Why?
Because the country was just beginning to worry about nuclear fallout, and the Air Force wanted to reassure people that it was OK to use atomic weapons to counter similar weapons being developed in Russia.
Two colonels, two majors and a fifth officer agreed to stand right below the blast. Only the cameraman didn't volunteer.
All survived, all died at an old age, none of this was service related.
The Air Force in the 50s didn't give a fuck. From ejecting bears off of supersonic jets to nuking officers...the Air Force didn't give a fuck.
#zerofoxtrot #stayzero #dukenukem #0disability